Yesterday Randy Seaver posted an article about historical newspapers in Northern New York and included a link to the free Northern New York Historical Newspapers project. There are a growing number of freeand subscription newspaper archives online having thousands of newspapers available for searching, but they've been disappointing because I've never found any in towns or areas where my ancestors lived - until now. I hit a gold mine in these old newspapers.
Saint Lawrence County in Northern New York is where three brothers from Dublin, Ireland eventually settled and raised large families. They were in order of age Dennis Hartford, Thomas Hartford (my 2nd great grandfather), and James E. Hartford. When I searched this newspaper archive for each of them I received scores of hits that will provide some life to their stories. Like most small town newspapers, there were many short paragraphs showing them leaving on trips to visit friends and relatives and also when family visited them. There was one about Thomas Hartford saying he received a card and $20 on his birthday from his son in Colorado...he received this card from my great grandfather John Thomas Hartford who moved to Colorado in the 1890s. I even found Thomas Hartford's death notice.
The best thing I've found so far is an 1898 article about James and Elizabeth Hartford celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary (James is my 2nd great grandfather's brother). This article is full of info on where they were married and when they came to Saint Lawrence County. The article also lists all of the people who attended the party, the gifts they received and how surprised Elizabeth was when she came home and found her house full of party guests.
I've only begun mining this resource and expect to find a whole lot more. Finally there is a newspaper archive I can actually use!
